From Saturday until yesterday (Tuesday) something was wrong with my Amazon account. There was an error message telling me that there was a technical problem that they were aware of and looking into that would be dealt with immediately. It was not.
I had several messages back and forth with Amazon France, but nothing happened. Each time I was in touch they asked me questions, which I answered, but offered no resolution to the issue. Eventually I wrote a complaint, no response. Another complaint. No response.
According to them when they called and discussed my problem was them telling me that all of Amazon would therefore be blocked. They thought it might be due to phishing, my bank card frozen and a couple of other things. I had already checked some of them for my self-assurance that my bank had not be plundered or the likes. But then I also made a UK order, which I took up to the last click but then cancelled. It worked despite what they said would happen here. I had no response when I let them know that. No responses did not suit me, so I reacted.
My attitude is that the people up at the top of the chain in a company usually have no idea what goes on on the 'shop floor'. However, my view is that if that comes to nothing then simply forget the middlemen/women and go to the top. In the electronic age it is always possible to find people. So I went looking and found Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, and emailed him. Here, with simply my orders deleted is the response.
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Dear Dr Brian Milne,
My name is Eric and I work within Amazon.fr Executive Customer Relations.
Jeff Bezos received your email and asked that I respond on his behalf, taking any action necessary to assist you.
I'm sorry that you had difficulty placing your orders. I've checked your account and can see that you have .... (ordered, lah, blah, blah)
To avoid navigation issues in the future, it's recommended that you clear (or "purge") your cache on a regular basis. While a healthy cache can speed up your Web surfing, you might start to experience slowness when the cache begins to fill up.
Also, you may want to consider upgrading to a newer version of your browser. You should visit the homepage of your browser website to check if any updates are available. You can find directions on how to do this in most cases by clicking Help at the top of your browser window.
I'm really sorry the service we provided was not up to the usual standards you have come to expect from us at Amazon.fr. I hope you will give us another chance to prove the high quality of service we normally provide.
You can contact me directly at resolution-fr@amazon.fr, should you need more information.
Thanks for your understanding.
Cordialement,
Eric
Service Client Amazon.fr
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That is a friendly enough answer but still did not tell me what went wrong so that I can avoid it in the future. As for upgrading and keeping my cache empty, I do those of a matter of course in order never to have such problems.
Anyway, the bottom line is that roughly four hours after writing to the CEO I had a peek into my shopping trolley and tried to complete the order. Hey presto, through it went. Now I have had the letter of apology. So all is done and dusted. Some items are for birthday presents, one of them for today but she is away until the weekend and the other friend on Sunday. My whole order has been given priority and now I have to stay home tomorrow to wait for 14 objects arriving.
My overall point is that when it all goes wrong, do not despair. Yes, I was furious but never once screamed down the phone or said anything abusive in an email. That just brings antipathy on the part of people who might deal with it. However, I was forceful in the point that I was treading water and not satisfied. That is what I would always say to do. This was Amazon.fr but it could as easily have been Priceminster, CDiscount or any other online seller. Do not waste time, do not get angry and react by yelling at the sales team. Just give them every chance then if nothing else works, go as high up the 'food chain' as possible then sit back and wait.
It works for me, if necessary it should work for all of you.